Network Health CEO Speaks on the Changing Health Insurance Landscape

For State of Wisconsin employees, including employees at UW-Milwaukee, the health insurance open enrollment period brought a lot of questions. Most of the insurance companies who previously offered coverage will no longer do so in 2018. State employees in the Milwaukee area have only two companies to choose from.

One is the Menasha-based Network Health, which also made the recent decision to remain on the Milwaukee County exchange, despite uncertainty about the Affordable Care Act’s future.

For the first time in a number of years, the number health care networks available narrowed significantly. "For us it was very important to answer the call," says Coreen Dicus-Johnson, president and CEO of Network Health.

"We're ready for the members who select Network Health...and we're excited to continue to participate," she adds.

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President Trump signed an executive order Thursday that is intended to provide more options for people shopping for health insurance. The president invoked his power of the pen after repeated Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, have failed.

"The competition will be staggering," Trump said. "Insurance companies will be fighting to get every single person signed up. And you will be, hopefully, negotiating, negotiating, negotiating. And you will get such low prices for such great care."

President Trump's decision Thursday to end subsidy payments to health insurance companies is expected to raise premiums for middle-class families and cost the federal government hundreds of billions of dollars.

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